President Obama's biggest mistakes
President Obama, as the highest elected official of the Democratic Party, was suppose to run the DNC. Instead, he allowed the Clintons to control it through the appointment of Debbie Waserman Schultz, as its chairperson. I now believe she was appointed on the recommendation of the Clintons and Obama went along with it. Many of us celebrated when the DLC was disbanded, what we did not realize was that the Clintons had moved their operation to the DNC.
DWS should have been removed after the rout in 2010, but Obama allowed her to carry on. After more losses in 2014 he still took no action. He talked about his legacy while stumping for Clinton, but it was already set in stone. He managed to win twice but the Democratic Party went down the tube while he was control.
The second big mistake was putting his energies into trying to get Hillary Clinton elected. He should not have discouraged or talked other candidates from entering the Democratic Primaries. With all the resources available to him, he should have known of the baggage that comes with the Clintons. He insulted people who had voted for him by telling them they had to vote for Hillary to protect his legacy. He came across as if he owned the votes of these people and that they were not allowed to think for themselves.
Third, the primaries showed where the mood of the people were, and he chose to ignore the evidence. Both he and his wife are diminished in my opinion, and today they share in the humiliation of Hillary Clinton's loss to Donald Trump.
Comments
Obama, all the female Senators, the professional left,
DNC - they are all responsible for this mess. They ignored their base and the Independents, and this time they paid.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
Identity politics to its logical conclusion?
In their haste to break the glass ceiling they never stopped to think who they might be letting through. Sexism has bad outcomes no matter who is doing it.
I totally disagree...
They didn't give one hoot about the glass ceiling. They were all jockeying for their spot on the Clinton gravy train. The Democratic Party and 99% of the ELOs in it are freaking corrupt. Bought and paid for. They don't give a shit about anyone but themselves.
The biggest indicator of what not to believe or do will be whatever the bought and paid for Kos is pushing. Just because Hillary lost doesn't mean he isn't still on the Democratic Party's payroll. Until the Third Way, corporate, Wall Street, DLC, neoliberals DEms are dead with a stake through their hearts, there is nothing the Democratic Party can say that I will listen to or trust.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
The new scheme is to make Sanders the head of the DNC.
That is such an obvious ploy to get the good little donors back into their pens.
Plus as far as Sanders goes, I want nothing to do with the man. They can make him anything they like, he's colluded with them and that's all I need to know. Hope he's happy he through so much support away on a freaking loser that most of us hated anyway. She of the eternal wars and lucrative favors for her slush fund benefactors.
I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks
Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa
The forgotten identity
Hillary was all about identity politics, but the identity that she conspicuously missed was the have and the have nots. The powerful and the weak. She was all to happy to talk about sex, gender, race, religion, and everything else. But power and wealth? She couldn't talk about that divide, or it would make her look like a hypocrite.
I'm sure the rank and file supporters who bought into the identity politics that Hillary sold were all about the glass ceiling. But for those who were already wealthy and powerful, as you say they were just looking to step up the ladder another rung and had no qualms abusing the other identity politics to do it.
Can't forget the Black Caucus.
And a special shout out to John Lewis for his hatchet job on Sanders.
Misogynistic Racists
for
stein - baraka
now's the time.
What you mention are a series of bad mistakes Obama made.
I think you are correct in what you say.
I still maintain that Obama's biggest mistake was to lie to the American people about his intentions on what his policies would be if elected. There has seldom been a president who took such an advantage of the good will and trusting nature of his supporters. He often did the opposite of what he promised.
"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"
I would vote this up a thousand times
if I could!! This is exactly why I don't believe Obama's legacy will be a great one. And it is why I couldn't vote for the Shrill once Bernie was taken out of the picture.
He lied.... plain and simple. I remember working as hard as my age would allow (I'm pretty old LOL) for Obama, and then I remember allowing excuses for his not following through on the ideas that he campaigned on. But that was only for a while.
Just my two cents.... now I have to get ready for work. But I'll be back to read more. Drinking my morning coffee and reading about Clinton's loss - great way to start the day IMO.
My wife and daughter worked hard doing the door to door
work in 2008 for Obama. Our daughter even traveled to other states. Plain and simple, to use your words, they were taken advantage of.
"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"
So did I in 2005 and 2012. I believed his lies the first tiime
and the second time I believed the bullshit "he can do everything he promised once he's in his second term'.
I was a freaking idiot.
I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks
Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa
I did not see it at the time,
but the Podesta emails suggest Obama has been in Citigroup's pocket since 2003. This explains a lot.
Citigroup chose his 2008 Cabinet and high level staff prior to the election.
Who knows what Citigroup instructions or "guidance"went to those appointees?
misogynistic racists
for
stein- baraka
now's the time,
Hammer meet nail
As per usual, duckpiin nails it once again. The Democrats have only themselves to blame, starting with Obama and his lies.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
Thanks GG, I appreciate your kind words. The scroogie the Dems
gave to people of good will and honorable intentions is like a sore that won't heal or a chronic illness. I don't think anyone likes to be taken for a sucker and one does not forget.
"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"
It's not only his lies but
It's not only his lies but his thinly concealed contempt for the left and the working class. His good-and-guns comment was as tone-deaf as Romney's 47% comment or the Shrubs "uniquely American" of Clinton's "basket of deplorables" gaffe. The "f...IMG retards" comment of his henchman and his own "professional left" slur summer up the Dem insiders view of the party's mainstream (I.e., useful idiots or worse).
Who'ld of thought that after barely escaping a VP Palin, we would end up with much, much worse. After losing again to a party of, by, but not for the nitwits you have to wonder if the un-Democratic is as irrelevant as our third parties are.
What I have been feeling for a long time...
I cried with happiness the day he was elected. It took me a very short time to realize I had been duped. I hate what he has done for this country. He and the (D) party better start to realize what it has become.
If he hadn't of lied, he wouldn't have won.
Hillary would have had her turn, and Bernie would be President. Even though I never believed his bull shit, I voted for him twice. He got my last two lesser of evil, WS votes.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
The mistake was on us in 2008
electing the sorry fraud.
Eight wasted years of various postures on various subjects. His Legacy will be Clinton's defeat.
Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.
IMHO, his real legacy
will be allowing fraud and corruption to continue unabated, starting with the banksters. His other legacy will be the expansion of wars, all of which are illegal.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
On this point that you raise, I am hoping that with 300,000
NATO troops now poised on the Russian border and with Trump as president-elect, some of the saner European nations will realize it is time to leave NATO and maybe even disband it. Surely Europeans realize self preservation should come first.
"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"
Blankets, not NATO
Europe really doesn't need NATO anymore: Putin doesn't need to send tanks to bend Europe to his will, he just needs to turn off the natural gas pipeline in the middle of the winter.
Obamas legacy
I think being elected as the first POC president will be the only positive of Obamas legacy. Everything else will be negative.
I'm great at multi-tasking. I can waste time, be unproductive, and procrastinate all at the same time.
Everything he did was a mistake
the biggest one being was making her heinous SOS.
I had so much hope for the guy but he left hope and change quicker than
WJC would say yes to money and women.
I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish
"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"
Heard from Margaret Kimberley
Mission Accomplished
Most late term presidents work to ensure that they leave an indelible mark on the future of the country and Obama's really outdone himself by helping to destroy the Democratic party and probably our system of government, too. American exceptionality, indeed.
Think he'll still try to sneak TPP through?
I'm hoping not.
Since he really tied himself to Hillary & lost he's even more of a lame duck.
Garland For scotus is over now too. Trump will nominate someone else.
Hollowed out
It appears that rather than destroying the Republican party, this election has taken out the Democratic Party instead; now that it has fallen, it's rotten core should be plain to see except for those who choose to be blind.
Not only were the party apparatchiks corrupt but much of the so-called "left" ecosystem was shown to be unsound as well. The new internet media that was supposed to supplant the self-serving dissipated "mainstream" media has demonstrated itself as unqualified to better our planet and equally corrupt. To many sites tried to browbeat or scare people into voting for the site's vision of the way forward and in doing so demonstrated their contempt for any thought but their own by using vile insults for the true left and the working class while spewing sycophantic praise of Clinton. They have shown their true being: may they remorsefully crawl under a rock shared with their false heroine.
Pardoning torturers, The Republican ACA
More war, abandoning the working and middle classes in his Wall St bailout plan, backing Hillary. I could go on but I'm bored of saying it over and over again
Nothing was fixed from 2008.
It was just papered over with 10 trillion in debt. The extraction schemes continue. It has to get worse before it gets better. ( cliche I know). The fourth turning right on track.
Obama also left the door wide
Obama also left the door wide open by bailing out the corrupt banks, failing to fix problems with the ACA, and recently pushing the TPP. And, Trump stepped right through. Next time the Democratic Party (if there's even one left) should behave like a Democratic Party - oh, and stop trying to cheat during elections, they're really not very good at it.
clue #1 -- 2008
more than half the Democrats opted for Obama in the 2008 primary.
clue #2 -- 2016 Sanders took nearly half the Democratic vote in this year's primary but it was too late to change the horse.
people didn't want Clinton in '08 or '16. that was certainly the case for me. the DNC should never have promised Clinton the next nomination after her loss in 2008. it's NEVER anyone's "turn".